Clothes rack or drier.



0. E. ENELL.

CLOTHES RACK 0R DRIER.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 11. 1914.

Patented Aug. 24, 1915.

TE a'r OTTO EDWARD ENELL, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR 'IO WAYNE MANU- FACTURING CODIPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

CLOTHES RACK OR DRIER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 24, 1915.

Application filed April 11, 1914. Serial No. 831,235.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, OTTO EDWARD ENELL, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Jersey City, in the county of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clothes Racks or Driers, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention has reference to mechanism for holding and operating an arm, the display or airing of light articles of apparel or other objects, when placed in a certain position, the said mechanism admitting of the arm or arms being depressed, elevated, and swung out of the way after use. 4

One object of the invention is to produce a device of the type set forth characterized by its simplicity of construction and operation, which shall enable it to be put into service or withdrawn therefrom by a single move of the hand of the person manipulating the same.

A further object is the provision of struc tural details rendering the device compact in form, easy to manufacture, and comparatively inexpensive.

A still further object is the production of a device having a graceful outline and generally pleasing appearance.

Originated with these objects in view, and such others as will become manifest upon reading the following descriptive matter, the invention consists ofthe several combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter specified in detail, and particularly pointed out in the subjoined claims.

A convenient embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawing hereto annexed, wherein- Figure 1 is a partly-broken top plan view of this improved device, held in operative position; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same, partly in section; Fig. 3 is a bottom or a plurality of arms, adapted fordisposed plate 11, formed preferably with two or more holes, as 12, 18, for the reception of screws or other suitable fastening means for securing the said plate to a wall or other primary support. This plate may be composed, if desired, of plural thicknesses of metal, as indicated in section, on the left-hand side of Fig. 2.

Hinged to the plate 11, at or near the lower edge thereof, is a relatively movable bracket member, in the shape of an entablature 16, arranged to be swung in a vertical plane, upon a pivot-pin 17.

The said bracket includes a third member, of a resilient nature preferably, which the drawing hereto appended represents as consisting of an overhanging arm 21, projecting forwardly of the plate 11 in a somewhat undulated' horizontal plane, so as to extend out substantially in parallelism with the entablature 16, when the latter is raised to a level position, as shown in said Fig. 2. A bolt 22, or other suitable fastener, carried by the entablature and provided with an upwardly-projecting head 28, designed to pass through a relatively enlarged aper ture 24 in the arm 21, and to engage the foremost margin of said aperture, as shown, the center of the latter is eccentrically disposed with relation to the aXis of the bolt 22, the construction affording a ready means of interconnecting the arm and the entablature and maintaining them in the horizontal positions respectively assigned to each, in accordance with the disposition of parts which the said figure exemplifies. The elements 11, 16, 21 and 22, above described constitute properly the entire bracket for the form of the invention herein disclosed.

Combined with the entablature 16 and bolt 22 thereon aforesaid, is an adjustable appliance fitted with one or more arms, adapted for projection into a predetermined, ordinarily horizontal, position. Two sets of such arms are shown in the accompanying drawing, the same being respectively numbered 25, 27 29 and 26, 28, 30, and serially disposed one set above the other. These arms may be held in or attached to the said appliance in various ways, one of which is delineated in the drawing for the purpose of illustration.

As shown herein, the said appliance includes three disks 31, 32, 33, placed at substantially equal intervals apart from one another, and conjoined by means of the before mentioned bolt 22, with the aid of auxiliary bolts 34, 35. The bolt 22 passes centrally through the said disks, and con fines the latter between a nut 36 and a collar 37, at its opposite ends, while the bolts 34, 35 are located to one side thereof, near the periphery of the disks, at approximately opposite points of the latter, where they are secured in place by the bolt-heads 38 and nuts 39. Ferrules 40, 41 slipped over the shanks of the bolts 34, 35 assist in maintaining the disks properly spaced apart as well as to prevent distortion thereof in the setting of the appliance, and the several disks are further held in operative relation through the agency of a special form of sockets for the arms, next to be described.

In the preferred form of the invention, as represented herein, the central arms 27, 28, are pivotally connected with the bolt 22, each by similar hinge parts 45 of disk formation, respectively located at opposite sides or edges of the arm thereto appertaining and oscillatable therewith between and against adjoining surfaces of the relatively fixed disks 31, 32, 33.

The movable disk-shaped parts 45 have integral, hollow and reversely-disposed portions 46, 47, extending in the same direction from one side thereof and adapted to register one with the other so as to constitute a socket wherein the inner end of each arm 27, or 28, is fitted and riveted or otherwise secured as at 49, Fig.- 2. The outer arms 25, 29, and 26, 30 in each ofthe two sets shown, are inserted between the said hinge parts 45, in sockets consisting of oppositely disposed channels 51, 53 and-52, 54 pivotally connected to the bolt 22, as at 55, 57 and 56, 58 respectively. The lateral movement-of the outer arms, it will be observed, is limited by the auxiliary bolts 34, 35, which act as stops therefor, when'spreadingthe arms out in the usual manner. However, othermeans for check ing the movements of the arms, and difi'erent methods of hinging the latter, equally well adapted to carry out the purposes of the invention can be followed in practising it, without departing from the main principle thereof, as will be apparent to experts in the art. The invention, therefore, is not limited in these and similar respects.

A rivet 60 may be employed for securing the disk 33 to the entablature 16, and its hinge member. The several disks are conveniently stamped of sheet-metal, formed with a central concavity 61, on one side, and a reversely disposed annular groove 62, running around the periphery ofeach-disk, on the opposite sides. This construction insures lightness, rigidity, and mutual support of the combined parts of the appliance, when duly assembled.

The forward. extremity of the resilient arm 21 is bent down slightly as at 66, and thence curved upward, as at 67, to provide easy ingress and egress of the bolt 22 in and out of the aperture 24, the head of the bolt riding along the bend 66, when brought into engagement with the arm 21, and the curve 67 affording a convenient hold for the thumb or'fingers, when causing the aperture 24 of the arm to be released from the head 23 of the bolt. But, here again it may be remarked that some other means for operating the arm, or even a difierent construction for holding the appliance to the vertical member of the bracket may be substituted for what has been shown.

The operation of this improved device is obvious. It will be readily perceived that the arm-bearing appliance hercinabove described can be raised as a whole with one hand, for instance, from the position represented in Fig. 5 to that illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. In raising it, the central bolt 22 will be tilted slightly backward to enable its head 23 to pass through the aperture 24 of the resilient arm 21 and snap into engagement therewith upon letting go of the appliance. The arm or arms of the appliance will then be projected horizontally from the wallplate 11 of the bracket, and may be swung laterally in a desirable position to place articles thereon, such as goods for sale which one may want to display, or laundried clothes exposed for exsiccation. When the articles are removed, the arm-bearing appliance will be quickly released by simply disengaging the head of the bolt 22 from the apertured resilient member 21 of the bracket, whereupon the appliance may drop down to its position in Fig. 5. In the latter case, thearm 21 may be utilized as a hook to suspend a drapery which would cover the device in its entirety and conceal it from view, if so desired. The device could in a like manner be swung upward, instead of downward, merely by inverting it, as will be understood by adapted to be placed substantially in .par-

allelism with said supporting element, a

pivot pin shaving aplurality of pivoted arms 1e. member,

thereon carried. by said mova and means for holding said pivot pin suspended from the support'ng element.

3. A device of the character described comprising a relatively fixed member, a movable member hinged thereto, a supporting element flexibly projected from said first named member substantially at a right angle therefrom, an arm-bearing appliance on said movable member designed to be placed therewith in parallelism with said supporting element, and means for holding from the latter the combined appliance and movable member.

4. A device of the character described comprising a vertical relatively-fixed member, a movable member hinged to one end thereof, a supporting element projecting substantially at a right angle from said fixed member, an arm-bearing appliance on said movable member adapted to be swung into a position substantially parallel to that of said supporting element, and pivotal means on said appliance adapted to hold it suspended from the supporting element.

5. A device of the character described comprising a relatively-fixed vertical member, a supporting element projecting there- Gopies of this patent may be obtained for connection engaging from into a substantially horizontal position, a movable member hinged to said vertical member so as to be capable of oscillation toward a plane substantially parallel with that of said supporting element, an arm-bearing appliance on said movable member, and a centrally-disposed detachable the supporting element from said appliance.

6. In a clothes rack, the combination of a relatively fixed member having an integral, overhanging, resilient element projecting from the upper end thereof, a bracket member hinged to the lower end thereof, a pivot pin rigidly secured to said hinged member, a plurality of arms pivotally connected to said pivot pin, and means upon the free end of said pivot pin for engaging the outer end of said overhanging pin.

Signed at the borough of Manhattan in the county of New York and State of New York this 8th day of April A. D. 1914.

OTTO EDWARD ENELL.

Witnesses H. G. KABLSON, W. H. GEE.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C. 

